Bought a $150 toner and probe kit from Amazon - biggest waste of money this year

I needed to trace some lines in a new apartment building last month and figured I'd save a few bucks. Picked up this no-name toner kit for $150 instead of renting a proper one from the supply house. The probe wouldn't hold a signal past 30 feet and kept picking up interference from the fluorescent lights. I spent 4 hours trying to make it work and ended up calling my buddy to borrow his Fluke. Lost a full afternoon of billable time plus the $150. Anyone else get burned by cheap test gear they thought would work?

3 comments

3 Comments

hannah_west3913d ago

Bought a $40 tracer once, traced my own sanity instead.

shane_bell13d ago

The $40 tracer sounds like it worked about as well as my $150 one, just cheaper to throw in the trash.

nina_hall4812d ago

Man, that's rough! I totally feel your pain on that one. @hannah_west39, you hit the nail on the head about tracing your sanity instead - I've been there too after fighting with a cheap probe for hours. Those fluorescent lights are brutal, they mess with every budget toner I've tried.